Parliamentarians and experts have said that the provision of take-and-pay power purchase and sale agreement (PPA) for the run-of-the-river hydropower projects in the next fiscal year's budget is unfortunate.

In a program organized by the Nepal Infrastructure Journalists Association on Monday, they requested the government to immediately amend the provision in the budget to protect the energy sector.

Deepak Bahadur Singh, chairman of the Parliament's infrastructure development committee, said that the budget is biased and necessary steps will be taken to make a fair decision to protect the energy sector. "Since it is an area where indigenous investors and more than 600,000,000 common Nepalis have share investments, the voice will be raised for the benefit of all," he said.

MP Urmila Majhi said that it is a shame that no one in the government that brings the budget is aware of 'Take and Pay'. Another member of parliament, Bina Lama, said that she would send the stakeholders to the infrastructure committee to discuss the issue and demand corrections. MP Nisha Dangi claimed that the 'take and pay' policy introduced by the government will fail. MP Dinesh Kumar Yadav said that he is raising his voice in Parliament to withdraw this provision immediately. MPs Mahesh Basnet, Sushila Shrestha and Shiv Nepali also said that they will take it up effectively and correct it. In the

program, the former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Govindaraj Pokharel, said that the government has attacked the sector of job creation. He said that the government is not sensitive to the energy sector, which is suffering from a lack of policy infrastructure. Ganesh Karki, Chairman of Independent Energy Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN), said that if the items of the upcoming budget are not fixed, there is a crisis that no hydropower project can be built. "Energy sector has been surrounded from all sides, we are really in trouble, we expect everyone's help," he said. Presenting at the

program, Deputy Secretary General of IPPAN Prakash Dulal said that the energy sector will be in serious crisis if "Take and Pay" is not fixed. "With this system, it will be impossible to do PPA of 17 thousand 117 MW projects," he said. According to Ippan's internal study, 1 trillion 9 billion rupees invested so far will sink, and 33 trillion 14 billion rupees in future investments are at risk. It is mentioned that the government will have to lose 3 trillion 27 billion 62 crores that can be received during the construction of the project and 31 trillion of income after construction.

As banks will not invest in projects with PPA based on 'Take and Pay', their investment area will be narrowed. This will disrupt the safe investment environment in the hydropower sector. In one megawatt project, 100 people get employment for 2-3 years and after construction, 10 people get long-term employment . There is a possibility that a large number of jobs will be lost and unemployment will increase as the construction of projects will be stopped by 'Take and Pay'.

The promoters say that this is likely to affect the government's ambitious target of producing 28,500 MW of electricity in 10 years and exporting 10,000 MW to India. Commenting on the presentation, Chartered Accountant Narayan Paudel said that 'Take and Pay' must be changed to 'Take or Pay'. "We have not been able to find an answer to the question of who brought such a sensitive issue, why and for what purpose," he said. Another chartered accountant, Ghanshyam Poudel, said that the government has moved in the direction of making the energy sector not commercial, but subsistence oriented. "The policy of stopping production because of not being able to increase consumption is fatal in the long run," he said.